Recently, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, fuel cell vehicles and the like have attracted attention as environmentally-friendly vehicles. Each of these vehicles is provided with an electric motor generating a traveling drive force and an electrical storage device. The electrical storage device is provided with a secondary battery for storing electric power to be supplied to the electric motor. The electrical storage device for a vehicle is expected to store electricity from an external power supply while the vehicle is not used or at night, for example. Thus, a battery charging opening is provided on an outer face of the vehicle body. When charging is not performed, the battery charging opening is covered by a charger lid. When charging is to be performed, the charger lid is opened, and a charging cable connected to the external power supply is connected to a charging socket provided in the battery charging opening.
Battery charging openings with a charger lid have been known through Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2. Each of the devices disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 is provided with a charger lid opening/closing the battery charging opening and an opening/closing switch for detecting opening/closing of a charger lid. In the device disclosed in Patent Document 1, an electronic controller executes control during charging on the basis of on/off of the opening/closing switch. However, although Patent Document 1 discloses the opening/closing switch provided in an electric circuit, it does not specifically disclose how the opening/closing switch is arranged with respect to the charger lid. Moreover, Patent Document 1 does not disclose a configuration for holding the charger lid at a closed position where the battery charging opening is closed.
In the device disclosed in Patent Document 2, if the charger lid is closed, the opening/closing switch is pressed by a lock bolt provided on a back surface of a charger lid. As a result, the opening/closing switch is switched, and a motor feed circuit and the battery are connected. If the charger lid is opened, and pressing by the lock bolt is cancelled, the opening/closing switch is switched, so that the battery is connected to a display provided on an instrument panel of the vehicle. Moreover, in the device disclosed in Patent Document 2, a lock mechanism for locking the charger lid at a closed position is provided. According to this lock mechanism, by operating a pulling tool provided in the vicinity of the instrument panel on the driver's seat side, locking by the lock mechanism is unlocked through a cable connected to the pulling tool. When the locking by the lock mechanism is unlocked, the charger lid is opened by a spring of the opening/closing switch. However, with the device disclosed in Patent Document 2, the lock mechanism for holding the charger lid at the closed position is necessary. Thus, the number of components and the number of assembling steps are increased, and a manufacturing cost is also increased.
In the device disclosed in Patent Document 3, a device for detecting opening/closing of a lid of a filler opening is provided in the periphery of the filler opening of the vehicle. This configuration is only a general example illustrating arrangement of the device for detecting opening/closing of the lid of the filler opening in an automobile. The device disclosed in Patent Document 3 is also provided with a lock mechanism for locking the lid at the closed position similarly to Patent Document 2. That is, by operating a lever provided on the driver's seat, the locking by the lock mechanism is unlocked through a cable connected to the lever, and the lid is opened. Thus, even if the technology disclosed in Patent Document 3 is applied to the device for detecting opening/closing of a charger lid, the same problem as that in Patent Document 2 remains.
Usually, in an automobile, a door courtesy switch is provided for detecting opening/closing of a door. This door courtesy switch can be used for detecting opening/closing of a charger lid. The door courtesy switch is provided with an actuator operated with opening/closing of the door and a return spring for a returning operation of the actuator. If the door courtesy switch is applied to a device for detecting opening/closing of a charger lid, the charger lid is pressed onto the actuator by an action of the return spring, and the charger lid cannot be held at the closed position.